Early Canadian Women Photographers – Free talk and show this Friday

Posted on November 22, 2016 by Robert
Laura Jones by Robert Lansdale (April 2006)

Laura Jones by Robert Lansdale (April 2006)

Toronto. Long time PHSC member, gallery curator, photographer and writer Laura Jones invites you to an event at the Arts & Letters club (where we will be holding our Image Show this coming Sunday).

Laura spoke to us most recently back in April 2006. Here is the note she sent on her event this coming Friday, November 25th.

Arts & Letters Club
14 Elm Street
Toronto, Ontario

an Ad Lib event  Free

Friday, November 25, 2016

Early Canadian Women Photographers

Laura Jones will discuss early Canadian women photographers and bring a selection of her favourites for you to view. Some are from an exhibition that she curated for the London Regional Art Gallery called Rediscovery, Canadian Women Photographers 1841-1941. The evening will concentrate on photos taken between 1865 – 1910.     Starts at 8:00 p.m. in the 3rd floor Painting Studio.    Bar opens at 7:00. Drinks can be purchased and brought to the studio.

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Chico and the Man…

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Robert
Chico Flash Set for Leica

Chico Flash Set for Leica

Toronto. Post war Leicas from the IIIf had the flash sync built-in. The most common post war flash was the CEYOO.

Chico was a cheaper and smaller all plastic flash with the same segmented folding aluminum reflector design and the battery-capacitor circuitry.

The basic flash was code named DFOOC and was sold from 1954 – 1959, It came with a flash cord or you could get a DFHOO pivoting holder with a built-in connection for the IIf and IIIf. A sync cord, the flash, and holder could be bought with a little red plastic box coded DHMOO.

The title Chico and the Man comes from a TV sitcom aired from 1974 – 1978.

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Time after Time…

Posted on November 20, 2016 by Robert
APDOO timer for Leica

APDOO timer for Leica

Toronto. We casually use our camera’s self timer today, but there was a time when such devices were a luxury and available only as an accessory.

Leitz made its self timer for the Leica from 1938 – 1965. The little cylindrical gadget screwed into the release button and gave the user 10 – 15 seconds to run from the camera and tripod, turn, and pose.

The code name for the timer was APDOO or with a little leather purse, ASKOO. It could be used to steady the camera for a time exposure too. Later Leicas could be purchased with the timer built-in.

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A Level Headed Accessory

Posted on November 19, 2016 by Robert
Leitz Fibla - c1929 bubble level

Leitz Fibla – c1929 bubble level

Toronto. Back in 1929, Leitz had a hit on their hands with the new Leica 35mm camera. Accessories helped photographers use the new minicam for things not otherwise possible or at least not in an easy manner.

A couple of tripod adaptors were offered to let photographers take portraits with the tiny marvel and to take panorama pictures using a series of click stop tripod heads that let the camera circumnavigate its surroundings.

To be most successful at portraits and panos, the camera had to be absolutely level. This challenge was solved by yet another accessory – a tiny bubble level that slipped into an accessory shoe (flash shoe in later years). The FIBLA was first offered in black enamel (1929-1936). In 1936, to match the new chrome cameras, the tiny level was recoded as DOOLU and offered in both black enamel and chrome.

 

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PHSC Elections April 2017

Posted on November 18, 2016 by Robert

phsc-wpgToronto. Every two years the PHSC holds elections at our April meeting and we are always looking for volunteers.

Members can mail in their choices and votes for the executive. Please follow the instructions in the latest issue of the Photographic Canadiana (42-3). The executive will be announced at any election year business meeting.

The next election year business meeting is April 19, 2017. To see our executive structure, click the icon at left or  here. The link takes you to the ABOUT section of our web site.

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Old Photo Oriented Magazines

Posted on November 17, 2016 by Robert
Churchill by Karsh - Life Magazine cover MAy21 1945.

Churchill by Karsh – Life Magazine cover May 1945.

Toronto. George Dunbar often discovers interesting web sites. When they pertain to photography, I receive an email which was the case two days ago. George came across the site “Slightly Out of Focus“.  This site is a book store specializing in old magazines rich in photographic subjects- not technology, but the resulting photos and essays.

Browsing the site brought back memories of lazy afternoons at the barber shop as a kid. Nels MaGee had many, many magazines including Life and Saturday Evening Post. Life featured a large photo on the cover as well as photo essays by well known photographers.

Four decades later, in the 1980s, I borrowed books from Richview Library (the pre Harris era when Etobicoke was a separate borough). I learned about the Farm Security Administration in the dirty 30s and Dorothea Lange. Margaret Bourke-White (who shot the first Life magazine cover), Lew Hines, and others.

George singled out the May 21, 1945 Life issue featuring the famous portrait of Churchill by Karsh of Ottawa. Have a look and see the many famous photographers, subjects and magazines of the not so distant past before we had the web and TV.

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New Kodak Ektra Smartphone

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Robert
Kodak Ektra Smartphone

Kodak Ektra Smartphone

Toronto. Member and ex membership secretary Dennis Cannon, sent a note to me and editor Bob Lansdale with a link to Kodak and their announcement of a new smartphone.

Surprisingly, the smartphone is called a Kodak Ektra. Not surprisingly the camera in this smartphone is emphasized, not the cell phone. This smartphone is uncannily like Ed Warner’s tongue in cheek “camera with a cell phone inside” at the last Show and Tell December 2015. In fact, many of the ever ready cases for this smartphone are typical camera cases and rather inconvenient for a phone. However,  the design of the camera is much like that of a modern smartphone – a thin hand sized rectangle with a lens in front and a large “gorilla glass” high resolution screen on the back.

Continue reading →

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Slow speed ahead…

Posted on November 15, 2016 by Robert
Leitz HEBOO slow speed accessory

Leitz HEBOO slow speed accessory

Toronto. One of the perks of collecting Leicas is the vast array of accessories available – not just additional lenses, but close-up frames, lens elements, extension  tubes, view finders, rangefinders, timers, rings, hoods, bellows, flash guns … and a slow speed device.

Screw-mount Leicas use a tiny focal plane shutter with two horizontal curtains. The gap between them gives an exposure from about 1/20th second to 1/300 or 1/500th second. A “B” setting sends the first curtain across the focal plane when the shutter button is first pressed and the second curtain when the shutter button is released.

At first, customers asking for a slower timed shutter were sold a special model B camera with a leaf shutter in lieu of the focal plane shutter. Later camera models added a timer to the camera so users could set the shutter to slower times up to a one second exposure. Early and less expensive models did not have this slow speed timer built in.

Owners of a less costly Leica could return it to the factory to have a slow speed shutter time installed or from about 1935 they could buy an accessory code named HEBOO to attach to the the shutter release to provide slower shutter speeds (1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1 sec).

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Schneider Kreuznach Tele-Arton Lens

Posted on November 14, 2016 by Robert
Schneider Tele-Arton f/5.5 240mm lens

Schneider Tele-Arton f/5.5 240mm lens

Toronto. At one of our mid 1990s fairs held at the Queensway Lion’s Club, I picked up a small f/5.5 240mm telephoto lens in a Leica screw mount. It was sold to me by Jim McKeen. Jim was retired from his hardware store in Hamilton and had attended our fairs for a few years to sell off his camera gear. He was a birder and used this lens for that purpose. It had a 39mm Leica thread mount and a mis-spelt engraving “Arlon” instead of “Arton” – someone in the factory forgot to cross their “t”.

It was a bit unusual since the lens was intended for medium to large format cameras, not 35mm cameras such as the Leica. It was newer (c1950s with factory coated elements), lighter, had a slightly longer focal length and was about a stop slower than the 200mm f/4.5 Telyt I had.

When digital came along, I tried the Tele-Arton out using the Leica bellows, rings and housing  with my Sony Nex-5. It was a good sharp little lens for the Sony giving the equivalent of 360mm focal length. N.B. this post is a repeat of another more detailed post back in March of 2011.

Left - Kodak Timer with Tele-Arton, Centre - Hydro Pole with Tele-Arton, Right Engraving error

Left – Kodak Timer with Tele-Arton, Centre – Hydro Pole with Tele-Arton, Right Engraving error

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Your Photo is in the Mail – Review of October Presentation

Posted on November 13, 2016 by Robert
Mike Smith by Robert Lansdale

Mike Smith by Robert Lansdale

Toronto. The Postcards of Reuben R Sallows is a talk by Mike Smith on Reuben Sallows of Goderich and the use of his photographs in magazines and on postcards. The short talk preceding Mr Smith is a brief overview of Orillia’s Street Alive summer art featuring columns of cameras (story poles) as described by Mark Singer. After his talk on Reuben, I gave Mike a lift to the Mississauga Bus terminal at Square One. I have a tenuous connection to Reuben Sallows – my eldest daughter contributed code to the designer of the Sallows web site.

Mike explained that he became an authority in postcards after discovering just how inexpensive rare postcards could be. He has written many definitive books on postcards all carefully illustrated. Each postcard is given a valuation not unlike McKeown’s guides for cameras. Mike mentioned that Sallows was an unsung hero with beautiful photographs depicting life in Southern Ontario and Canada in the 1900s. He felt Sallows was an inspiration to many artists including the American, Norman Rockwell. Mike currently lives in Goderich.

Continue reading →

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